Opening The Door : East Asians In British Theatre

in partnership with Arts Council England, SOLT/TMA, CDG, Equity, ITC and the Young Vic

10:30 - 5

Opening The Door: what are we going to do - right now- to end the marginalisation of East Asians in British theatre?

My name’s Daniel York. I've been an actor for twenty years and in that time I've played the lead in a play that sold out at the Royal Court, was personally recommended by Alan Rickman to play Fortinbras to his Hamlet, did a season at the RSC, also worked at the National, Edinburgh Traverse and Hampstead Theatre and won an award in Singapore but I've found I've hit a massive glass ceiling where I go for literally one theatre audition a year because I don't look Chinese enough to play crap Chinese parts on TV.

It has often seemed to me that in the last 10 or 15 years our industry has sat back and congratulated itself on the increased number of “Black & Asian” faces on our stages. Unfortunately “Asia” all too often has stopped dead at Pakistan. "East Asia" (according to wikipedia) consists of Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Nepal and Mongolia. East Asians (the fastest growing minority group in Britain today) have been sidelined, ignored and marginalised to the extent that even now it often appears to me that theatre producers will even actively avoid casting them in plays.

It’s my contention that East Asians are a third class ethnic minority in terms of UK media. I would go as far as to say East Asians are treated almost as a sub species. Reduced to silent and even grotesque stereotypes with no empowerment or presence. Our diversity, our experience and our talents unrecognised, even our BRITISHNESS such is our status as perennial foreigners, and all too often we are forced to rely on physicality and archaic exotica in order to gain any kind of employment opportunities.

Those are my views and I’ve also incorporated things other people have said as well. But what about your views, your opinions, your questions? Let’s freely express ourselves right here right now and really tackle these burning questions-

Why are East Asians continually discriminated against in UK media?

Why are East Asians perennially invisible in UK media and what are we going to do to address this?

What can we do to we change the current tokenistic representation of East Asians in UK theatre into a more integrated one?

In other words-

What are we going to do - right now - to end the marginalisation of East Asians in British theatre?

How we keep in touch

As well as contacting you about administrative issues connected to your report submissions, donations or event bookings, we would love your consent to tell you about upcoming Devoted & Disgruntled events, and Improbable news and productions. We won't share your details with third parties. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

We will normally only ever contact you via email. However, if you prefer to be contacted in another way, please select channels below.

If you'd rather we didn't contact you at all, please leave all channel options blank.

Your Privacy

We store all your personal details securely. We'll use your data to communicate with you in the ways you have specified, and may use data for analysis to make sure we're providing the best service possible. for more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

Event details

Where

When

Latest

A discussion about how to create a genuinely safe and open atmosphere in improv classes from the first class someone takes.
How do we protect students from potentially harmful experiences which can arise from the rigidity or literal interpretation of 'Yes, and' ?

These are notes taken as Guy Hartnell shared about the Oogly Boogly project, where performers improvised with babies by copying their movements and sounds, while the babies' parents watched. It took place inside a large inflatable venue. The notes were taken by Catherine Ryan.

This was an experimental workshop combining the work of Frank Torino and Richard Coaten who met on the pavement on the way to Day 4. I discovered Frank had an interest in mental health and in improv work with theatre students in Denmark, mine was in how carers of people living with dementia might benefit from having access to improvisation and its role in maintaining their resilience, quality of life and relationship with their loved ones...meta theme - great link made between Franks' You Be Me'

Part of the Fringe Central Programme for Fringe participants. Artist, technician, venue staff or audience member – you’ll know the pains as well as the joys of the Fringe. This is your chance to help make the Fringe work better for the very people who give it reason. You. Bring your own questions and ideas – you set the agenda and nothing is censored. An open space – come for as much or as little as you want.

Sign up for our newsletter

First name

Last name

Email

By signing up to our newsletter, you are giving your consent for us to contact you via email with news of Devoted & Disgruntled events and other projects run by Improbable. For more details on how we hold your data and how we are complying with GDPR, please see the Privacy Policy.